Counselling: more harm than good?

When it comes to dealing with personal tragedy, it seems you still can't beat the British stiff upper lip.

Reliving near-death experiences and other traumas during counselling is a waste of time, say experts - and can even make the suffering worse.

The claim will come as a shock to the country's burgeoning counselling industry. There are now more trained counsellors than ever, with 30,000 working full-time, 270,000 part-time volunteers and 2.5 million more who undertake counselling as part of their job.

With 16,000 members, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy is 12 times bigger than it was only 25 years ago.

But the research says that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not as widespread as claimed.

A report by the Oxford-based Cochrane organisation - which provides specialist medical advice - also questions whether counselling can help even when it does exist.

Its authors conclude that counselling is useless at best, and in some cases could even make victims more likely to suffer PTSD.

Research leader Simon Wessely, professor of psychological medicine at London's Institute of Psychiatry, said his study of 3,000 soldiers who served in the Bosnian conflict showed that only 3 per cent suffered long-term traumatic stress.

He said: 'Undoubtedly some people do suffer, but most do not. The toxic effect of counselling is that some people begin to see themselves as having a mental health problem, when they do not.'

The study's authors praise the mental strength of heroes such as Scott of the Antarctic, whose diaries show that he maintained perfect self- control while faced with almost certain death.

Their research comes after a study into counselling undertaken following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Up to 9,000 therapists offered their services to New Yorkers - three for every victim of the Twin Towers attacks.

But an American psychiatrist who led the study called therapy for survivors and victims' families 'an enormous waste of money'.

Professor George Bonnano said: 'There is little evidence that getting people to "open up" actually helps.

'There is more data supporting the view that talking about how unhappy you are just makes it worse.'

Doubts have been raised about the qualifications held by some counsellors.

And the benefit of professional help has also been questioned by Roger Broomfield, who survived the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in which 193 died when the ferry sank off Zeebrugge in 1987.

Mr Broomfield said: 'I went to one counselling session but it was useless. I was asked ridiculous and irrelevant questions, such as what was the name of the boat.'

However, he admitted that talking to family and friends had helped him.

'I had to spend five days in hospital and I had lots of visitors. I just talked and talked about the ordeal, which was great therapy,' he said.

Mr Broomfield said earlier generations survived the horrors of two world wars without the need for 'stress' counselling.

He added: 'My dad, who fought in the war, didn't have counselling - he just got on with things and managed. I'm gregarious and talk a lot about life and that was enough for me.'